12. The CAUSE and EFFECT Paragraph

The Cause and Effect Paragraph

Untitled Example 1

Cassava is the staple food of millions of people in Africa, Asia and South and Central America.  Its swollen tuberous root can be boiled and mashed or grated to produce a meal, known as “farinha” in Brazil and “garri” in Nigeria, which can be cooked in small cakes.  The root is also the source of the manufactured commodity, tapioca.  A plot of cassava can be insurance against famine, because the crop can be left in the ground for two or three years without deterioration of the tubers and be almost immune to locust attack.  But recent findings suggest that cassava may be responsible for birth defects.  It has serious disadvantages.  The tubers consist almost entirely of starch and are particularly low in protein, so enforced reliance on cassava leads to serious malnutrition.  To make matters worse, some varieties, when grown under certain conditions of soil and climate, develop a high prussic acid content and become extremely poisonous to people and livestock if eaten raw.  These tubers have to be laboriously prepared for consumption by prolonged and repeated boiling.

Analyze the paragraph above and fill in the chart.    

		Multiple Effects
	---is responsible    for…    èèèè
Cause	é
	é èèèèèèèè                 ê
	ê
	ê                 èèèè

Slaughter on the highways

During the past five years, the number of Americans killed annually in car accidents has climbed to more than 55,000. This needless slaughter on streets and highways can be attributed to three general causes. Mechanical failures, especially those related to faulty brakes and bald tires, account for a significant number of fatal accidents. Environmental conditions such as blind comers, narrow streets, heavy fog, intermittent rain or snow resulting in slippery roads also contribute to the grisly accident statistics. But without doubt the most frequent reported factors in car accidents are errors of human judgment all the way from such follies as excessive speed and drunken driving to such momentary lapses as failure to signal a return or a change from one lane to another. The man behind the wheel is often his own worst enemy.

Chart:

Language change

There are many reasons why languages change, but three major causes help illustrate the concept. Initially, various languages that started from the same parent developed their own uniqueness after groups of speakers drifted away from one another to establish isolated, independent communities. Another major cause of language change is the influence of an interaction with foreign cultures often as a result of military conquest. A continuing cause for change is rapidly expanding technology and new systems of communication that bring all cultures and languages into closer contact with borrowing between languages a common phenomenon in the contemporary world. All languages change as the experiences of their speaker change.

Chart:

Think of one example of:

Multiple causes - 1 effect

1 cause – multiple effects

Pulmonary tuberculosis

Pulmonary tuberculosis is caused by infection of the lungs with the tubercle bacillus.  Pulmonary lesions are due almost entirely to the human form of the tubercle bacillus, as distinct from the bovine type, which is mainly responsible for glandular and bovine tuberculosis.  The bacilli lodge in the lungs and set up a chronic inflammation of a specific type.  They produce areas of infiltration which have a characteristic tubercle formation; hence the name for the organism.

Analyze the paragraph and fill in the charts.  What discourse markers can be used when we place the EFFECT first and then the CAUSE?  What discourse markers can be used when we place the CAUSE first and then the EFFFECT?

Effect	Discourse marker	Cause

Cause	Discourse marker	Effect

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT – CAUSE AND EFFECT paragraph

Write an outline FOR A CAUSE AND EFFECT PARAGRAPH.   AFTER WRITING YOUR OUTLINE, START DEVELOPING YOUR PARAGRAPH.

First, decide whether you’re going to write a MULTIPLE CAUSES – 1 effect paragraph of vice versa.

Outline the PROCESS paragraph (USE ONE IDEA)

	Topic sentence:  The process of _____________________ includes 4 main steps.
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
	Conclusion:

WHO IS EDGAR ALLAN POE?
SEE POE'S POEM ANNABEL LEE AND WRITE A CAUSE AND EFFECT PARAGRAPH USING THE MAIN THEME OF THE POEM.

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